For a moment, even the ever-neutral face of Anthony that the current owner had never seen perked up its eyes just had such organs widened as he saw one of the future terrorizers of all Pokémon trainers in the Sinnoh region and also a celebrated Pokémon coordinator in the flesh. In his world, she's called a lot of things; memorably, he called him childhood trauma, and now that Anthony is in the true Pokémon world, he wanted to meet this person in real life someday.
However, he expected that one day would be a very long time, maybe if he became a famous trainer or a researcher (though he wanted to become one at the same time), he never expected it to be even before his first year in the Pokémon World passed by!
_What in the world is Cynthia doing here? Don't tell me someone is running out of ideas again? Didn't he just use the best idea restarter called the tournament arc?_
Cynthia, who was also looking at Anthony with eyes full of wonder, tilted her head a little as she looked at the boy who was looking at her with shock in his face (though it can only be seen in his eyes while his face is just slightly contorted). For a moment, Cynthia wondered if she knew the boy, though from her work and position of being projected as the primary challenge of the current champion of Sinnoh in her stint to qualify for the world coronation series, Cynthia has more adult friends than child friends her age.
So she just asked.
"Do I... know you?"
In truth, Anthony wanted to see the adult Cynthia, so he was not expecting such a young voice coming out of the character he had one of the hardest times defeating. This made him snap out of his little stupor as he once more went back to his neutral face, though someone like Hana and Ben, who knew Anthony so much, would see him right now, he would look quite nervous.
In any case, however, he still replied.
"Ah... you might not know me, but I don't think it should be a surprise for you to know that I know about you."
Cynthia chuckled, also realizing that she's somehow a famous person in Sinnoh and an emerging icon in the Pokémon world in general. Cynthia also noticed the lots of 'knows' in the boy's words, which made her realize that he is quite nervous.
_Hm, interesting..._
Cynthia smiled, finding the boy interesting and her stay here due to certain matters worthwhile and more fun than what she had to do. Which she felt like something that teenagers aren't supposed to. However, upon thinking of that, she suddenly remembered a certain picture that appeared on the briefing she had to undergo before going here for an important mission for the Interpol.
The moment of Cynthia's silence is the most nervous Anthony in this world has become, or perhaps the second one, as there's no feeling worse than almost getting kidnapped. But still, even though he felt ashamed of being flustered from seeing a child, he didn't say anything and just looked at Cynthia, who also started to observe him as she was looking for something in her memories.
_Ah, is she perhaps here because of the subjugation of Team Rocket?_
For a moment, Anthony thought so, but he wasn't able to expand on such as Cynthia finally spoke once more.
"Since you already know my name, can I ask yours too?"
Anthony looked at Cynthia, who obviously didn't know that Anthony was aware that she was also observing him, and also seemed to have some impression about him. Well, no one expected a middle-aged man inside the body of a 7-year-old, right?
In any case, Anthony responded.
"I'm Anthony Dover. It's nice to meet you, Cynthia."
Anthony wanted to actually say that Cynthia should know of his parents, but that would sound like a spoiled brat boasting because his mom and dad are famous, so he decided against it in the end. Instead, he extended his little hands by instinct and only realized it when it was already too late. Good thing his gesture was not ignored by Cynthia, who seemed to immediately grow light on the hazy memory of the thing that made her vaguely remember the name of Anthony.
Cynthia once again smiled as she shook the hands of Anthony before replying with more of an enthusiastic tone.
"Ah! Yeah, I was requested here because of a kidnapping incident with Ma'am Hana and Sir Ben's son. Who would have thought that you would be assigned to the green development center while I just arrived and decided to visit, huh? The words of Ma'am Agatha about you are very intriguing. I'm impressed."
Anthony felt quite happy that future champion Cynthia and Elite 4 Agatha found his not so many resume and feats commendable. Anthony forced a smile on his stiff-looking face before replying.
"I'm flattered that you and Ma'am Agatha find me good enough to be praised."
As Anthony and Cynthia separated their hands, Anthony didn't want the conversation to end just like that. Cynthia also seemed not to be in a hurry, so he decided to try to lengthen the conversation.
"... Will the operation against Team Rocket take long?"
As Anthony is involved in this fiasco and even gave Prof. Oak all the data versions of the Pokemons of Team Rocket that got confused and fainted with Zubat's Supersonic, he felt that such questions are appropriate and worth asking. Obviously, he doesn't want to look weird and also forcing himself to act like a child instead of a 30-year-old man who looks down on children because they can't buy Pokémon cards...
Well, Anthony was not exactly a good person back then. When Cynthia was about to reply, a bell sound was suddenly heard before a speaker that was attached to the aquarium, wherein the Feebas of Cynthia that would become a Milotic in the future was, as it announced:
"Feebas of Cynthia Celestica, Goldeen of Associate Field Research Elizabeth Sasaki, Golduck of... your time is up, please fetch your Pokémon to avoid any damage to their physique that may inhibit their growth."
Anthony jerked his head slightly and looked at Cynthia, who said 'Oh my...' before not even answering his question and going for her Feebas and putting it inside her Poké Ball. After taking care of her Pokémon, Cynthia once again went back to Anthony's side, who just watched her with his blank-looking face.
_It's probably something that either the Interpol or my parents doesn't want me to know, which is better as I'm still not an official trainer. If I become one, I would technically have 3 organizations within the government who will have my back, though only at a superficial level since I'm the son of the people they wanted to remerge with._
But for now, Anthony just didn't pry on the topic much. Something that Cynthia appreciated, as she doesn't like to lie to her newfound acquaintance.
"Ah~ I might go back here again, Prof. Rowan is always focused on Archaeology and doesn't develop lots of creative training centers like this..."
As Cynthia said this, she looked at Anthony while waving her hand and pulling out a Poké Ball from her purse, and pressed the middle button to enlarge it. Anthony also waved his hand silently, again being thankful that his new body is very silent in nature and not a blabbermouth, as he doesn't know what to say in this situation. In scalable terms, this is like a high school student meeting Isaac Newton, as Cynthia is the only trainer that he needs to use strategies formulated by hardcore players in the games.
_I hope we can become friends..._
While Anthony smiled a little unconsciously, Cynthia spoke.
"Then, I have places to go. I'll follow you on social media. I think your parents have one for their daycare center in the Pokegram, you should have one too, right?"
Anthony silently cringed at the name of the social media app, however when he replied with a simple nod, he realized that he only had the retcon of Facebook in the Pokémon world, and Cynthia didn't have a verified account of it. So he immediately pulled out his phone, connected it to the internet, and installed the app.
'The_Third_Dover_' will be his username, and to make Cynthia properly know that it's him, he followed his mom and dad, who are named 'Thedover' for his dad and 'Doverinlaw' for his mom.
_I should also select a profile picture..._
_____________
Despite the speaker who announced the full name of the future champion of Sinnoh and one of the child wonders that has taken the Pokémon World by storm, Mary seems to be in a world of her own and is unable to even react like a Pokémon trainer fan and an aspiring one like usual. In her mind are the words of her friend, Anthony, the son of her idol and lifelong goal to surpass, Hana Dover.
"There will never be another Hana or Ben Dover. Even Anthony Dover can't become Hana or Ben, I'm just Anthony."
As a kid, she never really considered herself someone who just wanted to copy Hana's footsteps, and no one, not even her father, stopped her (though this is because he is always supportive of Mary). For her, it's just the normal thing to do, after all, if you adore someone, you want to be like them, right? Even in her battles, she consciously or subconsciously uses the reckless and even borderline self-destructive strategies of Hana Dover, who was long known to be ready to command things that can injure her Pokémon for the sake of victory.
This is seen during the time when she used a Bulbasaur's mouth to catch the tail of Glen's Treecko, though Mary is unaware of this.
_Do I really want this?_
Mary thought herself repeatedly while trying her best to look normal and enthusiastic. However, she's so sure that her friend, Anthony, is able to see through her fake enthusiasm for Mary, knowing that Anthony is more observant than his neutral-looking face suggests.
However, she still decided to become more enthusiastic when collecting data and plans to do so in the subsequent data collecting activities to see for herself if she really enjoys doing such things, only researchers do, or if she really just wanted to become a Hana wannabe. Which would never happen because, as her friend said, there would never be another Hana Dover.
If Mary realized that she didn't want to become a researcher, then it would be easy to get out of the lab since Prof. Oak is not authoritarian. Plus, she's not even a teenager, so it should be fine to start over again with Skitty and Pikachu in tow. As Mary sighed, her head suddenly snapped to the ceiling whilst looking at the lightbulbs and other things hanging above it.
Seeing that there's nothing wrong, Mary can't help but squint her eyes.
_Could've sworn the ground just shook for a moment there..._
_______________
Cynthia Celestica found a new interesting friend this day, making her excitedly fiddle with her phone while skipping around to the more discreet part of the lab where the satellite lab was created. She then looked at her following and tapped on 'TheDover' profile, which is the public profile of Ben Dover, and scrolled through his followers and finally stopped when she saw a boy with a Zubat atop his head named The_Third_Dover_ that was created 5 minutes ago.
"He doesn't have one before, huh..."
As Cynthia hit the follow button and put out her phone, she threw out the Pokeball that she had been tossing up and down to the ground, causing a milky sparkle to emerge within that materialized 2 and a half meter tall shark with claws as hands and sharp teeth. Its skin is blue, while its chest is red, and its belly yellow.
Cynthia pulled several garters in her attire and made a bodysuit out of them before going to the belly of Garchomp, which has a pouch that fits her just fine, a custom-made one. Seeing this, Cynthia put on a tight metal helmet and put herself in the belly pouch that was obviously inspired by Kangaskhan's belly pouch before commanding Garchomp to use Dig, which the Pokémon did, jumping high in the sky and punching a deep hole to the ground, making the ground shake for a moment before going back to normal.
___________
"Upon the command of the President, the Interpol activates independent field agent Cynthia Celestica for a 1-month mission to the Indigo Plateau. She is to openly leave Sinnoh to Kanto while pretending to be discreet, after that, appear in random places inside Kanto, preferably large cities with many high-rise buildings."
"You are to do nothing besides appearing and pretending to be discreet."
"Team Rocket is in their last leg."